"If we see a thawing off, we can entice them with their favorite products to come to the restaurant," Andres said, according to NRN. "That's the future of customer relationship management. We think it can be a significant sales layer for us."

The loyalty program will likely be rolled out late this year or early 2017.

With the new program, McDonald's is following in the footsteps of Starbucks, which has one of the most successful loyalty apps in the retail industry.

In the last several years, the coffee chain's mobile orders have grown to represent 20% of all its US sales.

Starbucks
That's a remarkable feat. Retailers have been trying and failing for years to get customers to interact with them on their mobile devices.

Many Starbucks fans are upset that the new loyalty program will reward customers who get more expensive drinks like lattes, while essentially punishing those who just get black coffee — which is Starbucks' cheapest drink.

McDonald's is likely hoping that any customers that Starbucks angered with the changes will switch to McDonald's coffee and loyalty program instead.